Art Marketing Mastery Workshop

How to Get More Clicks on Email Marketing for Artists.

Among the many ways to build a loyal following and sell art direct to collectors, none is better or more effective than email marketing.

Don’t Wait to Start Email Marketing

As a visual artist, if you have not yet embraced the power of email marketing, there is no better time than now to get started.

Begin building an email marketing subscriber list of patrons, fans, friends and followers that you can communicate with on your own terms. To any small business, a responsive email marketing list is a tremendous, tangible bottom line asset.

10 Tips to Make Email Marketing for Artists More Effective

Use product pictures – using multiple images for gets more attention and more clicks. Read this article from the MailChimp forum on how more product images jumped click rates by 50%.

Use short, engaging subject lines – be specific and concise, offer a benefit, if possible. You only have about 2 seconds to get a click and have your email opened.

Always post a link near the top – make sure your link is above the fold. (Above the fold is a term from the newspaper industry that has carried over to Internet marketing. It means having content on the first screen before a reader has to scroll to see more.)

Make your links visible – don’t hide links in images or buttons. This is the opposite of call to action items on your website or blog where images improve click rates. If your reader’s email program defaults to not showing images, there may be nothing for your reader to click on.

Be specific – tell readers to CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE. You can decide on all caps or not, but do not be shy or coy about asking or telling your readers what you want them to do.

Repeat call to action three times – make a call to action link sandwich in your email newsletter. Ask once at the top, once again in the middle, and one last time at the bottom, or in the P.S.

Avoid using spammy words – free, help, percent off, reminder – these words, especially if repeated can trigger spam filters and trigger your email to cut delivery. Your email provider should have a checking system for you to evaluate your copy for potential spam problems. Make sure you use it.

Vary your subject line – running the same subject line will reduce your open rate. Use information that relates to the content in your body copy.

Include social sharing buttons – including social sharing buttons will raise your click rate dramatically. Use at least three social sharing links, such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, or Pinterest or Google+. This will give you much better click rate results that only including one social sharing link. I think these programs that display a smorgasbord of links are confusing and ineffective.

Add a P.S. – using a p.s. has been a staple of top print copywriting techniques for decades. Adding a p.s. is a proven way to get more clicks on your email marketing for artists campaigns. Make it relevant, mindful and always include a call to action link.

P.S. For those inquiring minds, there is a difference between open rates and click rates in email marketing for artists. Open rates are the percentage of your subscribers who actually open an email sent to them from you.

Click rates are the percentage of readers who have opened your email, and who then click on a link in your email. This could be to an email sign up form, such as CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE. As an artist, having links to product pages on your website where a buyer can order one something from you is a brilliant idea.

Subscribe here for more ideas on how to get the most from your email marketing. You also will get notification when Jason Horejs and I will be presenting a new podcast email marketing for artists. It is coming to you very soon. Here are links to previous posts in this ongoing series on email marketing for artists: